In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Rizen Inbound is featured as one of our Top Inbound Marketing Agencies. Check out their profile here.
The right marketing tools can make a huge difference as a marketing manager.
Your research, data tracking, and campaign management are all dependent upon a solid tool belt of marketing platforms. Thankfully, there are hundreds of articles to help you discover the top marketing platforms available.
But what about the not-so-good marketing platforms?
Finding a few solid marketing tools is pretty straightforward. Avoiding weak or underperforming platforms isn’t so easy. That’s why we’ve analyzed the 5 worst software platforms available on the market for you to avoid.
You should keep in mind, not all of these platforms are terrible. Some of them will still get the job done for the right individual. However, for most marketers, it’s best to switch to an alternative as soon as possible.
Let’s jump right in.
1. Zoho CRM
First up on our blacklist is Zoho CRM…
It has some potential as a customer relationship management tool. Zoho CRM offers a number of handy features and integrates with the other Zoho products. However, Zoho falls short where it counts: customer support and product testing.
Many users have reported a range of issues with data synchronization between modules as well as broken mobile and web app features. For instance, when you reach out to customer support with an issue, they will treat you like you modified or disabled different settings within the Zoho CRM app (even if you didn’t).
Customer support will usually take a few days to respond to your inquiries. When you’re running a business, waiting even a few days for a reply just doesn’t work.
Recommended Alternatives
Salesforce or HubSpot
2. Marketo
Before you start throwing daggers, Marketo Automation isn’t all bad.
For large companies, it might fit the bill; however, it’s just not right for small or medium businesses.
Marketo is far too advanced for small businesses. Its interface also isn’t as user-friendly as other automation tools. Plus, it’s super expensive for the mid-market.
For small business owners, lead generation and nurturing are their main priorities. This means you need to make sure you have quality landing pages. Unfortunately for Marketo, their landing page builder just doesn’t hit the mark.
Also, the campaign builder is difficult to use. It would have been nice to have an easy drag-and-drop builder. But… the email editor just isn’t user-friendly. If you want to have solid campaigns, you’ll need to have someone equipped with HTML and CSS to make it work.
Overall, unless you’re marketing within a large company, you should look elsewhere to optimize your inbound marketing automation.
Recommended Alternatives:
HubSpot Marketing, Active Campaign, or Getresponse
3. Aweber
Aweber used to reign supreme, but that was a few years ago. Since then, they’ve been outpaced by several other email service providers (ESPs).
Aweber touts itself as an automation platform that’s budget-friendly; however, they don’t offer a lot of automation options, and the cheap price isn’t worth the potential for lost time and revenue due to its underperformance.
Email templates are outdated and aren’t customized. Formatting is prone to glitching. Plus, the platform just isn’t optimized for mobile, even though 62% of email campaigns in 2019 were opened on a mobile device according to Upland.
Plus, nowadays, social media integration is crucial for any marketing automation software, but, you can’t see a subscriber’s social profile on Aweber’s dashboard. The email open rate tracking is inaccurate as well.
Overall, Aweber just doesn’t match up to other ESP platforms in 2020.
Recommended Alternatives:
Convertkit or MailChimp
4. IgnitionOne Digital Marketing Suite
What is IgnitionOne Digital Marketing Suite?
It’s a cloud-based, cross-channel marketing automation and campaign management platform for paid ads. It’s used by brands like Garmin, Samsung, and BMW. Must be good right?
You’d think so, but, it’s not, especially if you’re a small business owner.
The user interface is very confusing. The editor is awkward to use. Plus, it’s pretty easy to make errors in the editor that can take way too long to fix.
While IgnitionOne focuses on promoting its search and bid management platform, it doesn’t really live up to the hype. The UI is slow, manual synchronization is choppy, and it can be pretty stressful trying to use the program.
The lack of reporting and a custom dashboard is one of the strangest things they missed.
Plus, if you want to ensure your data is secure, you won’t like that the pixel server seems to have an endless downtime. If it goes down, you’ll lose your tracking abilities. Getting your data imported is no walk in the park. Plus, organizing IgnitionOne’s API to connect to other platforms isn’t easy.
While the price isn’t all that bad, the experience is for most people. Your best bet is to pick a different platform to avoid unnecessary headaches.
Recommended Alternatives:
Google Marketing Platform or SEMrush
5. SEnuke TNG
One of the best ways to build up your search engine rankings is to get high-quality backlinks to your site.
One of the worst ways to do this is using an automated link-building tool like SEnuke (one of the most popular options). This software promises to boost your site rankings automatically. This is apparently done by spinning articles, scattering backlinks through the web, generating fake clicks in the search engine results pages (SERPs) with proxies… And it’s apparently all done automatically.
Whatever you do, avoid this platform, and others like it at all costs. While the company refers to the platform as the “next generation of SEO”, the truth is, article spinning and low-quality backlinks will hurt your search engine rankings.
Google wants natural backlinks. They want original content. If your website is linked to hundreds or thousands of low-quality directories, blogs, and websites, what will happen?
As Google’s algorithms evolve, its ability to identify corner-cutting systems and blackhat footprints is getting better.
Don’t waste your time and money on something that has more potential for harm than for good. If you want to improve your SEO, you need to create value and put your audience first.
Use quality SEO tools that will show you what your audience is after, so you can create effective content campaigns using the right keywords.
Recommended Alternatives:
SEMrush or Ubersuggest
Want to Evolve Your Marketing Game?
Using outdated and insecure platforms can be extremely harmful to you and your organization. Not only can they make your job harder, but they can also cost your company a lot of money.
Now, it’s more important than ever to ensure your marketing software is continually updating, integrating the latest marketing research to stay up to date.